The World Wide Web has proven that online advertisement can provide a viable source of revenue for electronic application and content providers. The most common form this advertisement takes is what is commonly known as a Banner Ad. A banner ad is a component of a web page that is typically made up of a multimedia component that conveys information about the product or service being advertised, as well as a hyperlink to more information or a web site where the product or service can be purchased.
Moving Banner Ads into the wireless or mobile device realm has proven to be challenging for a number of reasons. One such reason is that wireless and mobile devices typically have constrained, limited, and heterogeneous device display capabilities. The bandwidth available for transmission over different wireless networks also places different constraints on the media that can be transmitted to the wireless devices. Thus, the same Banner Ad would not be appropriate for all wireless devices.
In addition, wireless devices typically have more limited interaction mechanisms and thus it may not be possible to navigate a Banner Ad in the same way on all devices. Furthermore, the higher cost of wireless bandwidth requires a focus on minimizing the data required for the Banner Ad in order to reduce the transmission time and the consequent cost.
A need therefore exists for an advertising architecture that allows advertisements to be tailored for different wireless device types and minimizes transmitted information while maintaining the functionality of Banner Ads.